If I would have done that (not that I would)they would have called it hit and run. Ill bet those guys had a full gun belt on and no PFD. Police do not belong on the water. Give the funding to the CG. I know take it to PA.

I had an interesting run-in with these same DC water cops several years ago. We were racing dinghy's between the airport and East Potomac Park. At the gybe mark we laid the boat over. DC Water Cops quickly came to "help.". As they approached (about the same speed as in this video) I told them not to touch the boat so as not to DSQ us for outside assistance. They replied, "Men, we need you out of the water and on our boat. Your boat is a hazard to navigation. We have to scuttle your boat." One cop had his trigger on the machine gun ready to fill my almost new boat with holes. After a friendly "Go Fuck Yourself Cop" we righted the boat and went on to win the race. Fucking idiots!!!!!

I generally have respect for our Maritime officers; until they have to deal with capized sailors.

I have one mate whose Hobie was pulled apart a couple of years ago because Maritime insisted on towing it sideways while turtled. Adults telling a 16 year old what to do.

Another mate was capsized with a couple of kids as crew, Maritime pulled up within half a metre of where he was sorting sheets in the water and left the props running. This is despite the extensive propeller safety campaign being run in NSW. He was understandably not happy and let them know how dangerous they were. Its kind of hard to argue with his 40 odd years of experience and that he is an instructor and assessor in dinghy sailing and powerboat licencing.

I have heard way too many stories of marine police assisting capsized vessels and creating absolute chaos. Seen a few too. There was a Blue Jay that swamped off our club that was backed down on, Sizzors form the EC was also wrecked. Heck even here in VT we have had a few stranger than life episodes on our little lake. Not Marine Police per say but the volunteer firemen mobilized everything for a capsized Sunfish one time. In general the level of overkill is staggering

I have heard way too many stories of marine police assisting capsized vessels and creating absolute chaos. Seen a few too. There was a Blue Jay that swamped off our club that was backed down on, Sizzors form the EC was also wrecked. Heck even here in VT we have had a few stranger than life episodes on our little lake. Not Marine Police per say but the volunteer firemen mobilized everything for a capsized Sunfish one time. In general the level of overkill is staggering

When I was a kid, around 12, out with my brother and father in our 14 food dinghy, we learned the hard way that you should generally wave off their help. They pulled us hard, broadside, to re-right us and bent the jib car.

A few years ago, I was turtled, and resting after some failed attempts to re-right (it turned out I had been injured worse than I thought during the capsize and that was making righting difficult). A local fire department boat was coming down on me, with the wind and waves, going too fast. At 100 yds or so I started waving him to go around and stay away. He turned, too late, still on the throttle, and clobbered my bow--luckily the fireboat was small and my boat light and only some gelcoat got damaged. As they started to approach me from leeward, I loudly and clearly with authority, explained to them exactly how we were going to proceed, that they would stand off to leeward until I had the rig tidied up and the boat righted, that they would then come alongside and we would take my boat in tow. It all went smoothly from there out and they were very nice, thoughtful volunteer firemen. They didn't have adequate training in boathandling but they were sensible and reasonable people.

In another case, back in the 80s, we were rescued by the Bay Head police on a blowy cold March day (broke a centerboard) and they were superb boathandlers and not at all pushy, and took me under tow very gently.

I have heard way too many stories of marine police assisting capsized vessels and creating absolute chaos. Seen a few too. There was a Blue Jay that swamped off our club that was backed down on, Sizzors form the EC was also wrecked. Heck even here in VT we have had a few stranger than life episodes on our little lake. Not Marine Police per say but the volunteer firemen mobilized everything for a capsized Sunfish one time. In general the level of overkill is staggering

When I was a kid, around 12, out with my brother and father in our 14 food dinghy, we learned the hard way that you should generally wave off their help. They pulled us hard, broadside, to re-right us and bent the jib car.

A few years ago, I was turtled, and resting after some failed attempts to re-right (it turned out I had been injured worse than I thought during the capsize and that was making righting difficult). A local fire department boat was coming down on me, with the wind and waves, going too fast. At 100 yds or so I started waving him to go around and stay away. He turned, too late, still on the throttle, and clobbered my bow--luckily the fireboat was small and my boat light and only some gelcoat got damaged. As they started to approach me from leeward, I loudly and clearly with authority, explained to them exactly how we were going to proceed, that they would stand off to leeward until I had the rig tidied up and the boat righted, that they would then come alongside and we would take my boat in tow. It all went smoothly from there out and they were very nice, thoughtful volunteer firemen. They didn't have adequate training in boathandling but they were sensible and reasonable people.

In another case, back in the 80s, we were rescued by the Bay Head police on a blowy cold March day (broke a centerboard) and they were superb boathandlers and not at all pushy, and took me under tow very gently.

I suppose it is really a crapshoot with local police on the water.

How many times have you been rescued? Perhaps you need to give a little more thought to prevention.

What i heard in Flda was that Federal Funding was based upon incident interaction with a presumption of Homeland Security interest. Thus the flipping of a sunfish would constitute a potential polluting of waters with a terrorist tinge and qualify for Federal Funds at the yearly accounting. Your country is nuts and not the home of brave nor free.

I noticed that too. I used to walk past the Watergate every evening, during the whole Lewinsky "scandal", with its throngs of paparazzi clogging the sidewalk waiting for a picture of her driving out of the garage. They loved to see me rumbling down the sidewalk. I'd chuck wagon them whenever possible. Poor bastards.

My one run-in with the Osaka water cops was right after a race. We were flaking the mainsail on to the mast running into Hokko yacht harbor, all of us watching out for the numerous dingies that constantly go in and out. When we were actually in the mouth of the sea wall, Barney Fyfe rolled up and hailed us to all go below and put on PFDs, RIGHT NOW! Assholes.

The Japanese Coasties might have hasseled us for not wearing vests too, but they know enough about boats to not do it right there and right then.

That is a very crowded area lucky he did not run over someone else. From what i heard he damaged 3 boats, just sunk one. After that he broke one big rule of being in the rescue business if you can not get there you are not going to help anyone. Be interesting to know how much damage he did to the patrol boat. How big is that inflatable, 30?

This is just more of our government run amuck. For instance why does the DC police patrolling a river have such a powerful boat. You look at all these police departments and they have these over the top boats.

I am betting the damage to his boat is nil. Maybe a prop and lower leg damage to the port engine. And you can thank homeland security for funding these big boats you see in all the ports. But yes I can't wait to hear about the fall out from this I am guessing it won't be much

My wife and I used to sail an 18' Alberg Typhoon on Biscayne Bay. This was in the early 70's when Dick Nixon would visit his buddy Bebe Rebozo on Key Biscayne. There was a big restricted area off of the house, and if you got near it, when Dick was in town, at least one high-speed, highly-armed CG boat would roar down on you with sirens and bull horns and blazing lights, and instruct you to leave the area.

Once, not knowing Dick's schedule, we must have gotten too close and got the treatment. My wife was on the foredeck, taking in the jib , an really got knocked around by their bow wave and wake. Such assholes.

This reminds me of another recent incident, which I will post separately.

Mall cops of the water. Have you ever noticed in the town you grew up in many of the cops are the waistoids, shit-bums, and losers from high school? Alot of the 'harbor police' are prob one step below that. They were probably the kids too lazy to take a job as a sternman on a lobster boat, work the gas dock, ect.

My favorite local cop on a boat story was during the Michigan Laser Districts in Traverse City around ten years ago. The local sheriff boat was trying to stop people to check their registration and write tickets for not having MC numbers on the bows (which absolutely nobody had). They were, shall we say, equally confused by and dissatisfied with the lack of cooperation among the competitors - I know they had some choice words for me during our little exchange, which I ignored apart from shouting "get out of here, we're racing" along with everybody else, until they were finally sent away by the race committee. Fortunately, once we were underway they didn't get agressive enough to do much more than annoy people, I don't think they actually managed to stop anyone while racing (they did write at least one useless ticket when they first showed up between races - iirc).

I think the water cops, although mostly not very good seamen are pretty much on top of it for scoring the actual job. Get to ride around on the water all day, burning gas and get paid for it.

I live in Westchester County, won't name towns. Did a dock and dine with the rib the next town over. Got there at 7:30pm and there is a spot that says policy or CG Auxilary only. Thinking about the time figured why would a cop by coming so took the spot. I was in the bar but the kids were just hanging out waiting. Sure enough the kids come in and told me the cops are here. I went out took a quick look and instructed them to just move the boat, this was after a few drinks and no way wanted to talk to a cop. Kids said the cop was nice about it and did not really care.

But the real point of the story is they were burning gas to go to the next town over just to get food where there is perfectly good food in walking distance from their home town dock. Just wasting tax paying money.

Why are their town cops on the water anyway? Should be the first to be cut in the budget if you ask me.

Mall cops of the water. Have you ever noticed in the town you grew up in many of the cops are the waistoids, shit-bums, and losers from high school? Alot of the 'harbor police' are prob one step below that. They were probably the kids too lazy to take a job as a sternman on a lobster boat, work the gas dock, ect.

I have heard way too many stories of marine police assisting capsized vessels and creating absolute chaos. Seen a few too. There was a Blue Jay that swamped off our club that was backed down on, Sizzors form the EC was also wrecked. Heck even here in VT we have had a few stranger than life episodes on our little lake. Not Marine Police per say but the volunteer firemen mobilized everything for a capsized Sunfish one time. In general the level of overkill is staggering

we get this at our lake, but what happens is that "concerned citizens" who no fuck all about sailing are calling 911 and telling responders that people are drowning..

I have heard way too many stories of marine police assisting capsized vessels and creating absolute chaos. Seen a few too. There was a Blue Jay that swamped off our club that was backed down on, Sizzors form the EC was also wrecked. Heck even here in VT we have had a few stranger than life episodes on our little lake. Not Marine Police per say but the volunteer firemen mobilized everything for a capsized Sunfish one time. In general the level of overkill is staggering

we get this at our lake, but what happens is that "concerned citizens" who no fuck all about sailing are calling 911 and telling responders that people are drowning..

This happens even in areas like the Chesapeake where most citizens should know better...we once had 3 helicopters monitoring the rescue of 6 overturned FJ's....the local volunteer rescue squad also wanted to treat every sailor that was involved...some were hypothermic, most were not and needed to be back on the water getting the boats back to shore. Welcome to America, land of the lawsuit.

In Chicago, the sailing school my club runs must have someone in the office every day boats are out on the water, because anytime someone capsizes out on the lake, with crash boats present, someone from the shore or at the home in a building will call 911. The dispatcher then calls our club to confirm that everything is ok. On rough weather days the club will get 20-25 calls on our fleet of 40+ boats. We've even had issues with people coming over in person to complain and yell at us for putting the children into harms way.

The best thing to stop problems is a video camera. Otherwise incident investigations are just a bunch of words that do not convey what really happened. The water is no different than the road when it comes to law enforcement. All it takes is one idiot to tar the entire force. If your being harassed film it. Hearing about incidents does very little good without proof.

Name the individual involved. I still do not see a name attached to this thread or video. WHO was driving the boat? We live in the age of the Internet. Place a name with a video like this and the individual involved may have to find a new line of work. Google "Mike Smith, Police" and this video pops up. That alone would make any Supervisor scared of losing their own pension to have this guy or gal involved in any form of law enforcement.

Can you imagine having ANY other incident involving this Officer happen and having the video play on the evening news? Bottom line is I suspect there are good and great Officers in the DC Harbor Patrol. This guy or gal is taking up a spot that could and should be filled with someone more mature. Help his Supervisor find new employment opportunities for this cowboy in order to promote someone more deserving in his or her place.

NAME THE OFFICER OR OFFICERS INVOLVED!!!

I keep seeing these posts about law enforcement telling racing sailors to put their feet inside the lifelines. But where is the video? Nobody had a camera or a phone that day? Really?

What I have found is that any large police or military organization will have a few problem individuals. The best thing is to actively find them some form of new employment. Maybe this guy just had a really bad day. Then again maybe this is normal for him. I went ahead and posted a link to this thread on the DC Harbor Police Facebook Site. So maybe we will get a response. Are you guys sure this was DC Harbor Police and not some other organization?

My favorite local cop on a boat story was during the Michigan Laser Districts in Traverse City around ten years ago. The local sheriff boat was trying to stop people to check their registration and write tickets for not having MC numbers on the bows (which absolutely nobody had). They were, shall we say, equally confused by and dissatisfied with the lack of cooperation among the competitors - I know they had some choice words for me during our little exchange, which I ignored apart from shouting "get out of here, we're racing" along with everybody else, until they were finally sent away by the race committee. Fortunately, once we were underway they didn't get agressive enough to do much more than annoy people, I don't think they actually managed to stop anyone while racing (they did write at least one useless ticket when they first showed up between races - iirc).

I was racing J-24s on Lake Washington in Seattle about a year after King County (Seattle is in King county originally named for a slave holder not MLK but since then renamed) allocated funds for watercops. Lake W has historically been involved in international shipping, has an international air harbor on it and connects directly to Puget Sound which is Federally Navigable waterway.

Back then the State registration requirments were that a 25'LWL boat had to be registered but between 15'-25' you only had to be registered if you had an outboard.

And they make the tabs expire July 1 just so they can catch some folks. It as mid-july and I hadn't gotten around to renewing my tabs.

We start the race and have rounded the weather mark and are headed for the reach mark (late 80s, we are still running triangles) when the watercops pull alongside us and hail "Skipper come alongside" to which I responded

"Stand Clear we are Racing and under sail"

-->Skipper come along side

"On what grounds are you asking me to do this? What am I in violation of (remember on Fed nav waterways, watercops have to "catch you in the act" or they have no boarding authority)

--> Your Tabs are expired

"This boat is 24' I am not required to have tabs"

--> You are if you have a motor, And you have expired tags on your boat

"Do you see a motor? If you don't see a motor, you do not have a basis for a violation. Stand Clear We Are Racing"

<i>Now meanwhile we are till racing towards the reach mark mid fleet and boats around us are laughing. And the cop talking to me is female. So she heads into the pilothouse My crew is grousing at me but I tell them to shut up and keep racing - female cop comes back out, their 40' aluminum boat is still pacing my J-24<</i>

-->Skipper come alongside you have a motor down below

"Do you SEE a motor? If you do not SEE a motor you have no probable cause. This is Federally Navigable Waterway and you have no boarding authority. STAND CLEAR"

<i>the redfaced cop goes back insde and they confer, We are now less than 10BL from the gybe mark.... The driver Does a POWER TURN just like in the video and roars off to the Race Committee, His wake gives us a nice push getting us an overlap on the boat ahead and stopping the boats astern (it was aboutt 6-8knots of breeze

Mind you, Karma is a nasty bitch.... The watercops hassled the RC about their permit (they had a solid one) then roared off to resume their patrols... BUT at sunset, as we are sailing back to the Marina. they positioned themselves right at the mouth of the Marina... And with the wind dying, we were becalmed about 100yds from the Marina.

The other Js went motoring by laughing.... while we had to rock back in. Not one of them offered a tow... But I did get a round of beers in the clubhouse in return

These CLOWNS I am sorry pieces of shit who should not be in ANY uniform had the nerve to talk shit! "Your not injured so relax!"

Anyone here imagine what they would do or say to these losers if they did this to your boat?

But wait. They are conducting their own investigation! The same people who hired and trained these shit talking so called law enforcement officers....yea right! are going to investigate the incident.

I can not believe that I even tried to protect this unit. This is not normal. If this had been anywhere else the police, military or CG would have been in that boat making sure there wasn't an adult or a child inside. Instead they run away and talk shit to the crowd? WOW!

I apologize . Go after this Department and Officers there is nothing that can be defended here.

The fact that the D.C. police are investigating is of no consequence - it's not like they can hide it or turn it around like that deadly incident in Cali a few years back. The clueless cop may get off but the vid ensures their liability

The Metropolitan Police Department is in receipt of your email regarding the accident involving a MPD vessel. MPD takes all accident investigations seriously and this matter is being investigated throughly. At this point of the investigation, there is no other information that can be released.

One thing I'll say about the 5.0. on Boston Harbor is they tend to do a good job of harassing motorboaters while leaving sailors alone.

The problem in a location like Boston is there are too many agencies on the water looking for work justification. In addition to the USCG, there are City of Boston Police, State Police and Environmental Police vessels. Whenver there is a call, you see a scramble as the various police boats race to be on the spot first.

The USCG are very professional and not an issue, but the State police and Environmental Police are clearly insecure about their place in the pecking order, and the the validity of their missions, and can be a real PIA. This comes out especially during any Harbor events. While touring under power the most recent tall ships in a J29 with the main up, an EP boat pull alongside and asked where my dayshape was. I sent my wife down below to fetch it (not that the boat had one...) and had her stay below until we were lost in the parade. I saw no point in trying to improve the EP cop's understanding of the inland nav rules, better to nod and hope he lost interest, which he did. Members of the same group has been unplesant and aggressive in other encounters.

It's always a bit nerve wracking to be boating around the 18 year old kids with machine guns.

Sounds like this time, the accident was one of their own.

I don't suppose they will learn to be more careful who they give firearms to?

One of my ex-wife's cousins accidentally shot another guy while stationed in Korea. He (cousin) grew up hunting and knew all about gun safety, but it did no good because he didn't know the !@#$@# safeties had been disabled on the shotguns they were using to shoot skeet.

One thing I'll say about the 5.0. on Boston Harbor is they tend to do a good job of harassing motorboaters while leaving sailors alone.

The problem in a location like Boston is there are too many agencies on the water looking for work justification. In addition to the USCG, there are City of Boston Police, State Police and Environmental Police vessels. Whenver there is a call, you see a scramble as the various police boats race to be on the spot first.

The USCG are very professional and not an issue, but the State police and Environmental Police are clearly insecure about their place in the pecking order, and the the validity of their missions, and can be a real PIA. This comes out especially during any Harbor events. While touring under power the most recent tall ships in a J29 with the main up, an EP boat pull alongside and asked where my dayshape was. I sent my wife down below to fetch it (not that the boat had one...) and had her stay below until we were lost in the parade. I saw no point in trying to improve the EP cop's understanding of the inland nav rules, better to nod and hope he lost interest, which he did. Members of the same group has been unplesant and aggressive in other encounters.

saw this when the Prindle sank in the EC. 4 different agencies in fast powerboats plus the C-140. It was a little scary in the ICW as these guys went by at 50+. One even went by twice I guess they decided the pass to the North was to hairy so they turned around and went back to Venice. After the rescue they were all lined up in Venice. The Sarasota PD was even there! As we went by the County PD boat took off down the Venice Canal at full clip, guess there was another call. I was really glad I wasn't sailing in the canal at the time. It's narrow.

According to my Google machine, no news in the last week. I'm betting this is the last public report on the subject. Insurance will pay on the boat and other than an ass chewing from his boss, the incompetent idiot operating the boat will suffer no consequences whatsoever.